Tuesday, 14 August 2007

"Una piedra en el camino, me enseñó que mi destino era rodar y rodar"

The past six of July, FridaKahlo would have been 100 years old. I still remember the huge impression her work caused in me the first time I saw it. I was very young, but I couldn't get out of my mind those raw pictures. You may or may not like her paintings aesthetically, but the symbolism is undeniably priceless.

She lived a short, but intense life. Frida was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, México, although she would claimed she was born in 1910, the year the Mexican revolution started. At age six, she caught Polio, causing her a deformity on one of her legs.

Things got worst, when she had a bus accident. Her spinal column broke and her reproductive organs were damaged. She suffered terrible pains during the rest of her life, as well as sterility. While she was in bed, recovering from the severe injuries, she started painting.

"La columna rota"

She despised her German origin, and that's why the European Frida is about to bleed to death.

" Las dos Fridas"

My first thought was to talk only about Kahlo and her work. Later, it occurred to me that I could link this post with traditional Mexican fashion. I introduced you my Mexican dress.

12 comments:

I agree, although aesthetically her work does not enthuse me, the symbolism is so powerful and tells many, many stories. Her work is very disturbing which I guess, in a way, is a good thing, since art is supposed to disturb rather then please. I think in time her work will grow on me.That dress is cute:-)

over the years, i'm only really starting to realize the genius of kahlo's work. she's so successfully communicated traditional mexican story telling, and used it as a vehicle to tell the story of her own life.

Dear blogger, I want to congratulate you, you are so brilliant that people on the internet copy your ideas and your posts, look at this: http://modeandco.hautetfort.com/, she copied your post from the 8th of August. When people start to imitate you in a so obvious way, is because you are triumphing!! Congratulations!!

frida is one of the artists i a d o r e. i still remember arriving at the tate gallery about 3 years ago and all tickets being sold out :( snif! p.s the ambiance hopper is creating makes me wanna step inside his paintings > love ur new outfit!

Her adored father was German, she read German literature, listened to German classical music and admired the German and Flemish Renaissance (which influenced most of her painting, note her self-portraits). The "European Frida" bleeds because she has finally metamorphosed into truly mexican, not because she despises her origin. I stood before that painting for ten minutes three years ago and it was completely breathtaking. Great post and great blog. Cheers from Madrid!